Chelsea FC’s young Dutch left back Ian Maatsen is set to complete his move to Aston Villa soon after the two clubs agreed on a deal for £37.5m. According to Fabrizio Romano, it has reached the status of one of his famous “here we go” transfers. It has also been confirmed via Fabrizio through his “here we go” that Chelsea have completed the signing of Omari Kellyman from Aston Villa./
Chelsea has sold Ian Maatsen
The talented Maatsen will join a young and promising Aston Villa side that has earned UEFA Champions League Football for this upcoming season after they finished fourth in the Premier League. Maatsen is coming off a season in which he didn’t play much with his parent club Chelsea in the first half of the season, but then went on to be brilliant for Borussia Dortmund where he was on loan. Maatsen reached the heights of the Champions League final against Real Madrid at Wembley Stadium during his time in Germany where he was predominantly the starting left back for the squad.
It was interesting because former Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino saw Maatsen more as an attacker, playing him as a right and left winger and even centrally behind the striker on occasion. It was not his natural position and he certainly didn’t look as comfortable as he did at BVB playing there for Chelsea, and he gets his move to go play left back for Villa presumably.
FFP concerns for both sides
With Aston Villa paying above the asking price for Maatsen (very slightly above Chelsea’s 35 million euro evaluation), they would immediately run into financial fair play concerns and would need to sell someone for profit. There were rumors of Chelsea and Jhon Duran as there have been for a while, but the club eventually landed on Aston Villa academy attacker Omari Kellyman according to Fabrizio Romano.
Chelsea acquire Omari Kellyman
Omari Kellyman has joined Chelsea from the Aston Villa academy for a £19m fee. With the financial fair play concerns noted above, Chelsea was willing to pay a little extra for the talented Kellyman in order to get the Ian Maatsen deal done and get him his deserved move away from the club. Some people thought Maatsen might get his chance under the new Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca, but he left the club and got his deserved UCL football.
Kellyman, the young English international, was born in 2005 and came up through the Derby County academy. He moved to Aston Villa before the 2022/23 season. He then proceeded to make his senior debut in the 2023/24 season in which he assisted a goal scored by Leon Bailey in a UEFA Conference League game.
He can play right wing and through the middle and is left-footed. Many Chelsea fans just rolled their eyes after what happened with Michael Olise, but he is very talented and makes much more sense with the emerging talents of Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke within the squad last season. Also, having Christopher Nkunku who can predominantly play through the middle is another option that the club has.